Chapter 2008: Ignite the Strange Dream in Your Heart (Part 1)_1

"Hi, everyone, I'm Spider Man, and I don't think I need to say much because, after all, we're all Spider Man. I'm sure you've all read 'Gotham Travel Notes' written by a previous Spider Man, right? I really enjoyed that blog post, so when I actually met a Batman, I chose to go back with him to his hometown, Gotham."

"Today is my second day here, but we arrived late last night. Big thanks to an archangel named Lucifer who thought I performed well in the game so was willing to give me a ride."

"Oh, by the way, we had a layover in Heaven. I waited in Eden for more than two hours. Honestly, the fish there are really lively! I really wanted to record the scene of the angels fishing for you guys, but filming was not allowed there."

"Alright, alright, I got up especially early today. I've heard that even at dawn in Gotham City, there could still be super criminals lurking around the city. Let's see if we run into some familiar faces from the 'Gotham Travel Notes.'"

"Wait, wait, what's that? Hey, you in the green suit, stop defacing the wall right now! If you don't, Spider Man will make you regret it!"

With a sound of "crack and thump," Batman covered his eyes with fingertips. He felt a bit of tinnitus, so he used the device on his gauntlet to check his ear pressure again.

But he realized his ears were not the problem, the hum was in his brain.

Batman now felt he should cut his losses. When he first felt regret, he should follow his intuition and not stir up more trouble – his gut feeling was right.

The most significant difference between Spider Man from the Schiller Universe and the other Spider Men is that after graduation, he focused on academic research and also, that he had been silent for quite a long time.

There's no Peter Parker in this world that stays quiet. If you think you're living a peaceful life, it's because someone else is taking the rap for you.

Peter appears quiet often because he knows very well that it's not okay to make a racket in the lab and research center. Rambling near others' ears could easily affect the experimental results, so he tries to keep it down as much as possible.

But that doesn't mean he doesn't want to speak. No matter how long he holds back, he won't chat to a test tube. That would land him under Schiller's watch for psychological assessment.

So Peter developed a hobby - surfing online, broadcasting live, and chatting with other Spider Men and netizens on the Spider App and various social media platforms.

As he buries himself in experiments at the institute without speaking a word during the day, he only really gets to be himself at night. Hence why he talks more than other Spider Men during such free times. Even Gwen, known for her tolerance and gentleness, is getting slightly annoyed with him.

And now, it's Batman's turn.

He'd never expected that after all his careful planning, he'd forget to account for his own medical expenses and mental trauma.

The two of them returned to Gotham together at around six o'clock last night. From the moment Peter landed, he didn't stop babbling until four in the morning.

Batman and the Batcave mainly repair to check the wear and tear of the equipment, check the situation in Gotham when he's not around, and update and maintain some important devices.

No matter where he went, Spider Man's voice followed.

Batman never thought that one day he would not be able to concentrate on listening to potentially revealing intelligence, but after midnight, his ears felt like they were connected by a high-speed railway line, had Spider Man's words whizz by his cerebral cortex at high speed, slip off the other end, and disappear into the wind.

After accidentally scratching a device for the third time, Batman eventually threw Spider Man out.

Before making this decision, Batman seriously considered whether such an act was humanitarian to Gotham's criminals. You know, he never once thought about this issue when breaking criminals' limbs.

On-screen, Spider Man just caught the Riddler and was apparently asking him to erase the graffiti on the wall.

After watching it for a while, Batman decided to go study inter-world communication technology.

The photos of the Riddler taken by Spider Man were shared thousands of times on the forum of the Spider App. Hundreds of comments below were from various Spider Men all calling it "so cool."

One Hand clicked on the heart icon below the photo. Stark pulled his phone away a bit, took off his glasses, and looked at Steve, who was arranging his equipment in the tool room beside him.

Stark leaned back forcefully, glanced at Steve's condition, and then returned to a normal standing posture as if nothing had happened. As he turned to leave, Steve spoke.

"You better not try to run, Tony. You know Nick won't let us go. The meeting time this afternoon is two-thirty, remember?"

Stark let out a long sigh, leaning on the bar with one hand, tapping the bar top lightly with his finger, "Didn't Schiller just make him a big fortune? Why does he have to gather everyone to discuss something?"

Stark rolled his eyes and continued, "Everyone knows I hate meetings, but if every meeting host could get straight to the point in the first second of the meeting, and finish discussing the important things in the shortest time and most concise language, I would fall in love with meetings."

"You know that's impossible," Steve fastened the Velcro on his glove. With a click, the back door of the tool room was opened, and an iron arm reached in.

Steve took a chainsaw from the nearby tool board and passed it to the shivering Bucky, then turned to Stark, who was about to leave, and said, "Nick specifically said that we both have to go. He wants me to watch while you suit up so that you don't pull the same trick as last time when you only sent an iron can and we didn't know where the hell you went."

"What's the difference? My Battle Armor records all conference content and can even refine them, saving everyone's time tremendously."

"But it doesn't work, Tony. There's no way you can persuade Nick with technology."

"Shiller manages to do it every time, and he hardly ever joins the group meetings."

"Because he's a psychologist. His job is to persuade other people." Steve put down the tools in his hands, walked out of the tool room, and said to Stark, "I guess this time Nick isn't just investigating the Battleworld. I saw a group of people who didn't look like agents going in and out of S.H.I.E.L.D. Nick must be negotiating with them."

"You promised on my behalf without my consent that I would go."

Steve looked helpless. Spreading his hands he said: "Alright, that's on me. But Jarvis needs you more than ever right now. You need S.H.I.E.L.D. to handle the mutant leader, otherwise his proposal won't go smoothly."

Stark's attention was immediately diverted. Mentioning Jarvis and Wanda was yet another lawsuit for him, but it seemed to convince him effectively. So he responded, "Alright, but there's still an hour before the meeting, I'm going to get a drink over there. You coming?"

"Nope. Bucky is helping Falcon with ground location training, I have to help out in the backyard. Don't drink too much, if Nick finds out you're not bringing your brain ..."

"I got it, I got it."

Stark waved impatiently and walked off on his own. When Steve walked back into the tool room, he found Bucky leaning against the back door, watching him.

Upon seeing Steve return, Bucky chuckled and said, "Getting better at it, huh?"

"At this rate, I could get a license in psychology myself." Steve sighed, hung the somewhat heavy chainsaw back on the tool board, and the two left through the back door.

Rapid footsteps echoed in the corridor, the somewhat dim lights flickered one by one, and Nick pushed open the door to the conference room. The light suddenly brightened.

At the first glance, he saw Stark leaning against the wall, and slightly pleased, nodded at Steve by his side. But as he got closer, he smelled alcohol and frowned in slight displeasure.

"Don't look at me like that. Your long-winded preamble before getting to the point is more than enough to drive me to drink," Stark said, seeming utterly dispirited yet not forgetting his retort.

To Stark's surprise, Shiller arrived after Nick. Could it be that Nick was going to announce something big today?

All of the Avengers knew that this psychologist didn't like meetings either. Even the Hydra and the KGB were terrified of Nick's verbosity, absolutely no one at S.H.I.E.L.D. liked these meetings.

But unlike them, Shiller was always able to find various appropriate reasons to skip the meetings, this skill undoubtedly topped the wishlist of many agents for abilities they'd want in the next life.

Stark, who was essentially sober now, took a look around. Everyone showed up this time, all members of The Avengers were here. Even the reserve trainees, the young heroes, were sitting excitedly in their chairs.

Poor them, they have no idea what they're in for, Stark thought. No one is better at crushing passion for saving the world and illusions of righteous endeavors than Nick.

"Alright." Nick slapped the table and said: "Everyone's here now, let me say a few words."

Stark just laid his head down and slept.

When he woke up again, it was already four in the afternoon. The conference room wasn't exactly vacant, it was rather, at its peak - that was, the peak of Nick's monologue.

At ten past four, Nick finally summed up the recent work, then spent another twenty minutes looking into the future, and finally got to the point.

That's when Shiller just woke up.

Steve, who had awakened long ago but dozed off again, gave Shiller a thumbs up. Landing precisely in the progress bar was indeed an enviable skill.

"Wake up! Stop sleeping!!" Nick began to roar again, obviously many people failed to drop in accurately and crashed on site, most of them are young heroes who were already lacking sleep.

"Ahem." Nick cleared his throat and said: "As you can imagine, our work focus for the future will definitely be on the Battleworld. But before that, we have to take care of things in the real world, the most important of which is - copyright."

"The world's biggest entertainment company, Disney, approached me. They are willing to buy the image rights of all the superheroes under S.H.I.E.L.D. They propose an annual fee of tens of billions of US Dollars and plans for movie production and peripheral sales. What do you think?"